for the moment. Leesil could usually stop a fight with few injuries to anyone.
"Gentlemen…" Leesil began.
Lost in rage, Brenden swung a backhanded fist at the half-elf, but his blow met empty air. Leesil dropped, hands to the floor, and kicked into the back of Brenden's knee. The blacksmith's large body toppled and a breath later, he found himself pinned, facedown. Leesil sat on his back, with one forearm against the blacksmith's neck and the other pinning his right arm. Although he was much heavier than Leesil, no amount of bucking from Brenden could throw his lithe keeper off. Every time Brenden tried to pull a leg under himself, attempting to get to his knees, Leesil kicked back with his foot in the blacksmith's knee, as if he were spurring a horse, and Brenden flattened to the floor again.
"It's all right," Leesil kept saying. "It's over."
The first guard Brenden had hit disentangled himself from the table of patrons that he'd landed on. Blood ran down his jaw and chin from his nostrils and it was obvious Brenden had broken his nose. His hand dropped to the sheathed shortsword on his hip, but then his eyes lifted to see Magiere. Her falchion rested on his shoulder, the sharp edge next to his throat. She said nothing. The guard put his hands up in plain view and stepped slowly back.
Finally, Brenden stopped struggling and lay in a smoldering, panting heap.
"My friend's going to let you up," Magiere said to him, not taking her eyes off Ellinwood's guards. "Then you leave my place, understand?"
"Leave?" Ellinwood puffed. "He is under arrest for attacking the very men who protect Miiska. He is a criminal."
While Magiere disagreed, this was none of her concern. She just wanted them all to take it outside.
"He's not a criminal," Leesil protested. "Have some pity, you whale!"
One of the guards—not the one with the broken nose— pulled a rope from his belt and crouched down to begin tying Brenden's hands. Leesil reached out to stop him, but Magiere grabbed him by the shoulder. Cursing under his breath, the half-elf stood up and stepped out of the way.
When Brenden was roughly jerked to his feet, he glared at Magiere as if she were to blame.
"Don't come back," she said. "This is a peaceful tavern."
"Peace?" Brenden spit out, sorrow outweighing the anger in his voice now. "How can you talk of peace when you're the one who can stop this killing? No, you hide away, serving ale to the likes of him." He motioned with his head toward Ellinwood.
"I can't stop anything," she said, tensing.
The guards dragged Brenden from the tavern.
Leesil walked away without a word and went back to his faro table, but Magiere could see he didn't feel like dealing cards anymore.
* * *
Late the next morning, Leesil stood outside Miiska's guardhouse, which also served as a jail, and checked his purse again, somehow hoping the coins within had miraculously multiplied. It had been hard enough to keep his distance from passersby who could have unwittingly aided him with that need, but he'd promised not to lift any more purses now that they had to stay in one place. Upon rising that day, he'd asked Magiere for his month's share of profits in advance. She'd given it to him with some apprehension, probably believing he needed it for a gambling debt. He didn't care what she thought. She'd never understand the truth. He wasn't sure he understood what he was doing anyway.
When he entered the guardhouse, Leesil paused in surprise. He'd hoped to handle things with one of the witless deputy guards, but there was Ellinwood's massive body behind the small table that served as a desk, rucked into the right corner of the room near the front barred window. He was staring intently down at some scribble on a parchment.
Leesil had seen his share of jails, from both sides of a cell door, and this one appeared no different. A few "wanted" posters were tacked to the walls—those offering a reward or other profit from an arrest—and three cell doors lined the back wall, which was more than enough confinement for a town the size of Miiska.
He swung the front door shut as he stepped over to the cells. At the noise, Ellinwood finally looked up.
"Oh, it's you," he said with thinly hidden impatience, most likely expecting a formal request for payment regarding the broken tavern table. "What do you want?"
Leesil peered into the eye-level slots of each door and found